Monday 29th May 2023 to Sunday 11th June 2023. I have completed my first 16 hours in the simulator with Ryanair on my type rating for the Boeing 737! It seems I start every blog the same but I really am absolutely loving it! It is so enjoyable being in the sim and learning how the aircraft flies and doing things the Ryanair way. These first 8 sims have been over two blocks of 4 sims with 5 days not in in-between. Some would say days off, but these days are spent going over what we’ve covered in the first 4 sessions and looking ahead to what’s going next in the next 4 sessions and being as prepared as we can be for what’s coming ahead.
There’s been a little bit of confusion as to what I’m learning to fly, so allow me to clarify that for you. Ryanair as an airline only flies the Boeing 737, but similar to cars, there are different variations of the Boeing 737. Ryanair flies the Boeing 737-700, 737-800, 737-8200 and the 737-MAX10 (a recent order of 300 of these aircraft, but are yet to enter service at time of writing). The best way to describe the difference is comparing them to a Volkswagen Golf for example, although there is a TSi, TDi, e-Golf and GTi they all fall under the same bracket as a Golf, but are all slightly different. This is the same for the Boeing 737. In the simulators I am learning to fly the Boing 737-800 series aircraft. But, due to the issues the 8200 and MAX10 have had in previous years, I will need to compete differences training for these to be allowed to fly them, but this will come at a later date. As you can see in the photos below, the cockpits also look slightly different.
For the first 10 simulator sessions, we have a 4 hour session where we complete 2 hours as pilot flying (PF) or pilot monitoring (PM) and then backseat and watch another crew. Myself and Stepan are paired with Dylan and Tarik, so when we’re not flying we’re watching these two perform to a really high standard so it means myself and Stepan definitely cannot be slacking with these two around! By backseating, it allows you to see the bigger picture and what’s going on so is a great opportunity to learn. We all make mistakes, no-one is perfect, but by watching other make mistakes means we don’t make them ourselves. For example, I forget to set up my audio control panel and was trying to transmit on the wrong frequency, the instructor realised so stayed silent and allowed me to make the mistake and work it out for myself. When I realised and corrected, we carried on and realised where the mistake was – have I made that mistake again? No. Did Dylan or Tarik afterwards make the same mistake? No. Learning has taken place and we’ve all benefitted for it.
Tuesday 30th May 2023 – FBS 1
Tarik as PF and Dylan as PM went first and went through their start up through to take-off and took the aircraft off. They spent slightly longer where the 4 of us were confirming the correct actions to be undertaken, light indications and what we expect to see and do when. When it was my turn, I was PF and Stepan PM, and we managed to complete everything up to engine start in a shorter time – this time we weren’t going through so much as to what happens when and what to see, but being green and completing actions for the first time in the simulator it was slower than we really wanted it to be. Overall though, it was an amazing first session to get my hands on the 737-800, and I absolutely loved it. Some of the advice was invaluable and will take it forwards with me and build on my knowledge to improve as PF. My total setup was 1 hour, so just need to practice my set-up flows more and practice briefings with Stepan so this becomes more fluid and not so stop-start.
Wednesday 31st May 2023 – FBS 2
This time it was myself and Stepan first, myself as PM and Stepan his first time as PF. Because you’d normally complete a walk-around while the PF is setting up, it did feel odd to be sat there and I wanted to help out more, but you’ve just got to wait for the PF to complete what they need to. A good lesson where we looked at the autopilot modes and what we expect to see – this also ties in with confirmation bias and not assuming that the correct mode has entered, but confirming it’s engaged and the aircraft is performing how we want it to. This includes looking at the FMC and how that can help in both vertical and lateral guidance. Afterwards it was Dylan PF and Tarik PM, and again they were both on it, pushing myself ad Stepan from behind. This also allowed me to watch and learn and ‘steal’ the way these two do things, they both left their iPad’s out of their stowed holders for a long time, this encouraged open body language and thus their briefings were very swift – I liked this and will be taking it into my own session.
Thursday 1st June 2023 – FBS 3
Tarik PF and Dylan PM first again, once again they were on point and set the stones for me to follow in the next lesson. It helped looking at a big picture overview first then going in so when it came to actioning what I was being asked, I’d already seen it once so was quicker and could move on, achieving more in the lesson. My total set up time was 42 minutes so right on track where I needed to be. Myself and Stepan have been practicing in the mornings before our sims and it shows that this extra work we’re putting in is paying off. It did feel a lot quicker than last time but I didn’t realise quite how quickly I had completed my full setup! In the air, we looked at the autopilot cruise procedures and began setting up for an approach and the standards calls we’d learnt in the previous week. Everything is tying in together nicely and it’s good to see the full picture beginning to be built.
Friday 2nd June 2023 – FBS 4
Final day in the sim and once again it was myself and Stepan and PM and & PF respectively first. I believe I could be a little bit more supportive to Stepan as PM, I’m noticing small little things but not raising them quickly enough – it’s not a contest to show each other up but a little nudge to help each other in the right direction. Stepan is brilliant at this and helping me, but I just need to be a little bit quicker when supporting him – this is my target for next week is to be a bit more proactive in speaking up. Stepan flew brilliantly all the way through from take-off to landing and reviewing our descent and approach as well as taxi-in and shutdown procedures. Dylan and Tarik then followed in, and again they were brilliant following in our footsteps to come to a really good end to our first block in the sim. 20% through already and that’s rather impressive to be that far and have achieved so much in such a short space of time. Taking on so much extra knowledge and learning the whole time has been so fun, exciting and I already cannot wait to be back in the sim again for my next block!
Saturday 3rd June 2023 to Wednesday 7th June 2023 – Day’s not in
I would like to say that these were days off, but truth be told, I’m not going to get any of them any time soon! As we were told in our induction, we can be ‘sad’ for a few months while we’re doing our type rating. My week consisted of managing to get 2 controlled training simulators which are like gold dust – this is where we’re able to book a fixed base simulator to use as we pleased (within limits) – so on Saturday morning at 06:30 after being in less than 8 hours before, myself and Stepan had a controlled training session and worked together to improve what we needed after our first week in. The second was at 22:30 on Tuesday where I back seated Tarik and Dylan and again was really beneficial for me and the two of them too.
The other days I spent my time revising my feedback from the previous sim sessions so I could improve for my next block of sims, as well as looking ahead to the lesson plans so I would be fully prepared for what’s to come. This included learning approaches which I hadn’t done since I was in the simulator at Bournemouth and given I’m now in a 189 passenger seat jet aircraft, these are flown different to my 4 seater DA-42. I also began learning all of my memory items as opposed to just the main ones.
Thursday 8th June 2023 – FBS 5
Back in the sim for the early morning slot, briefing at 05:00 local time and in the sim from 06:30 to 10:30. Like the previous block of 4, we would be backseating with Tarik and Dylan during these sessions and again watching people perform acts as a great learning opportunity. This first sim we looked at what we covered last time, but this time, myself and Stepan were hot on the money and it was beautiful. We have started to develop a synergy between the two of us and its become evident that we were studying in our days off as we dealt with everything that was thrown at us in a timely manner. Being PM for this flight, I thought I was a lot more supportive and Stepan backed me up on this and said I was a great help, but I can only be as good as the guy next to me, and to say he was on it was an understatement.
Friday 9th June 2023 – FBS 6
My first time as PF in this block of sims and we were introduced to stuff going wrong – deliberately for training purposes I’d like to add! It started on the ground where we had an APU fault so required to start the engines using a ground air cart and then crossbleed, before starting the second engine we also had a CDS fault, simulated calling maintenance and them coming to fix it and continued. My departure was beautiful, so much so that myself and Stepan were on it, the instructor said it was beautiful and line standard. The calls were on time, we flowed and the synergy between myself and Stepan was brilliant, we were definitely working at a level of more than 1+1 – this isn’t me blowing my own trumpet, this was only possible with the support from my PM. We then dealt with a bleed trip off and and electric source off problem before finally having a cargo fire and dealt with it accordingly. We then completed a VNAV approach, the first time I’ve ever done one of these and this was flown well
Saturday 10th June 2023 – FBS 7
Back as PM this time, and the problems started early again with an aborted engine start and the associated memory items that come with it. Then after we took off, the landing gear wouldn’t move to the UP position so required diagnosing and correcting the failure which we did before carrying on with our flight. In the air after a loss of hydraulics in system A then reset and again in system B, we decided to divert to Dublin as opposed to continue onto our destination of Cork – slightly disappointed as it would’ve been nice to have flown into Cork and waved as I taxied past AFTA! We then set up for a V/S NPA to a go-around and then again for a full stop landing and both of these went well and were brilliantly flown by Stepan.
Sunday 11th June 2023 – FBS 8
Final simulator of this block and final early morning for a few days! Progress test 2 and I would be PF this time. The departure was good, not quite as smooth as the other day but it was good none-the-less. We were then greeted with our failures in flight, in the climb out, we had a display source alert & the EEC’s reverting into alternate mode which both required sorting. We then had an engine low oil pressure which led to the shutdown of that engine which meant the disconnecting of the automatics and my first bit of handling the 737 with one engine inoperative, we drifted down to a lower altitude to attempt a restart of the engine but this was unsuccessful and instead resulted in the engine start valve not closing like it was supposed to resulting in another fault. This was all reset and given our 2 engines back before having an engine fire and dealt with it using our memory items. Once completed, we were then given our second engine back and flew a V/S NPA approach again. We flew it twice, the first very nicely done and the go-around was really good too, on the second we challenged to configure later at 7nm as opposed to the 12-10nm recommended for training, while on the approach the instructor challenged us further to configure at 5nm with a non-normal checklist to complete on the approach – we managed to do it, but it wasn’t as good as last time and myself and Stepan were both at our task saturation point! I’d feel a lot more confident doing it now if I were to jump in again however. Overall the flight went well and again myself and Stepan passed our second progress test as too did Dylan and Tarik who were both fantastic again this week and pushing myself and Stepan harder and harder and I’d like to think that we’re pushing them too.
That brings my first two blocks in the sim to a close and that means we’re already 40% of the way through our simulator phase! This has gone really quick but I am loving every single second of it! We have 3 blocks in the sim left, my next block is in the fixed base simulator again and then the final two blocks of 4 sims are in the full flight simulator! At the end of our final block of sims we have our licence skills test where we’ll be assessed on our ability to fly the Boeing 737 and have it added as a type rating to our licences and be able to fly on the line! I’ll bring you another blog soon after the next two blocks of simulators, but until that time, take care and I’ll catch you all real soon!
